Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 202

THE FALL
which reach it through the media of the senses; therefore, it is doomed to eat vibrations, which, as such, are recognized as the irreducible units of matter, hence dust. The enmity put between the woman and the serpent psychologically symbolizes the relation between the intellect and the manas. The latter loves to wander from place to place, and is in its element when roving about; but the former needs rest for its higher work of forming concepts and judgments, and, therefore, tries to check its fiery nature and hold it on to a point. Hence, the manas bites the heels of intellect to make it dance, and the latter crushes its head to stop its prancing. This is still more pronounced in the case of the seed of intellect, which is judgment and, in the highest sense, Wisdom. Wisdom, the child of intellect, conceived in an immaculate manner, tries to break away from the manas, to regain his 'lost' Godhood, but the manas, so long as its head is not crushed, bites his heel to drag him down to the world of senses, each time that he endeavours to soar above it, for Self-realization. This is best illustrated by the story of the child Krishna subduing the Serpent-King, Kâliya, by crushing its head, in the river Jamuna (allegorically, the mind-stuff). The lesson to be learnt from the story is that, in order to attain Nirvana, or, in Christian terminology, to be redeemed, or saved, one must subdue the fiery serpent' of one's mind, ie., the desiring manas* at an early date in life.
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* Manas is the Minotaur (man and beast) of the Greek mythology, its human element representing reason, the faculty of reflection, and the bovine, pure animalism, that is, uncontrolled sensuality.